Pulled pork roll and a smoked Belgian-style pale ale

As those of you who follow our Facebook page may have spotted I was in France last week so you might expect a pairing with a wine from Languedoc. But no: the outstanding match, as with the previous week, was with a beer - and a rather unusual one at that . . .

It was a limited edition cloudy Belgian smoked pale ale from Arbor Ales called De Rokerij which was served at one of their two Bristol pubs, The Three Tuns.

I’d been meaning to go there for a while as they have an in-house street food kitchen called Meat & Bread which, as the name suggests, serves mahoosive meaty sandwiches.

This was actually my husband’s choice, a pulled pork roll with stout BBQ sauce for which I guess the natural pairing would have been a stout but he was intrigued by the beer which was fruity, malty with just a touch of smokiness - not nearly as smoky as a rauchbier. And comparatively modest in alcohol by craft beer standards at 4.9% ABV.

It was a brilliant match, not least when we added our neighbour on the next table’s homemade barbecue sauce which he generously allowed us to try. (Thanks, Steve)

I had the hot dog - a classic, but generous version which paired really well with the Kernel table beer I was drinking.

So I can recommend the Three Tuns both for their beer and their food. Take note they might stop serving earlier than you expect - last orders are taken at 2pm and at 9pm in the evening.

Guacamole, salsa and a citrussy pale ale

Last Friday night Helen, our designer, and I had a bit of a works outing to our colleague Monica Shaw's who works on the nuts and bolts of the website. She cooked up an amazing Mexican feast of which this was just one element but it was striking how much better the whole meal went with beer than with wine.

It wasn’t that the wine was bad. We had a deliciously limey Peter Lehmann Wigan riesling which went extremely well with the guacamole too - as did a Sauvignon Blanc and a new English rosé from Dunleavy vineyards just outside Bristol.

But the beers we had - a selection from Helen’s other clients Wild Beer Co, Arbor Ales and the Bristol Beer Factory - were just so easy with the widely varied ingredients and dishes we threw at them.

I’m singling out the guacamole (which was properly chunky) with our first and second beers, Wild Beer Co’s intensely hopped Fresh and Madness IPA because they both had a citrussy edge that went brilliantly with the lime and coriander in the dip.

We also had roast squash-stuffed tamales with mole poblano, a big roast corn and avocado salad, refried beans, stuffed jalapenos, tomato salad and homemade pickles a punchy/spicy combination which went really well with an Arbor Yakima Valley American-style IPA. (A red wine big enough to handle all those powerful flavours wouldn’t have been as refreshing)

I can’t pretend we found a beer to go with the chilli-spiked mango fruit salad and ice-creams and sorbets but we finished with a flourish with some intensely chocolatey truffles with candied chillies and the Bristol Beer Factory’s raspberry stout - an unlikely but knockout combination.

It was the big flavours in the beers that carried the day too. Light lagers and more traditional ales wouldn't have worked as well.

Coffee-infused pale ale and jalapeno cornbread

I’ve been making a policy recently of ordering good craft beer when it’s on offer instead of wine which is how I came across this stellar pairing at the newly opened Caravan restaurant in Kings Cross. (Terrific - I’ll tell you more shortly.)

They have a brew made for them by Camden Town Brewery which is infused with their own coffee - one of the things they’re known for (the coffee, not the beer). It didn’t have much of a coffee flavour, just enough to cut the edge of the sweetness of the American-style ale but it was absolutely cracking.

We actually ordered a number of dishes with which it rubbed along fine including fried chicken and watermelon (a surprisingly good combination) and some opulently cheesy grits with truffle oil but the dish I’d recommend - and the only one they’ve brought over from their Exmouth market branch - is the most outrageously moreish jalepeno corn bread with chilli butter. Which I recommend you order with the beer while you try and decide what to eat. The menu is so good it may take some time . . .

Pork pie and pale ale

Today, being St George’s Day, what other pairing could I offer you but a classic British dish with a classic British beer?

Pork pies, for those of you who are unfamiliar with them are quintessential British pub grub, coarsely chopped or minced pork encased in crisp pastry. At least it should be crisp. Many pork pies suffer from spending days on a supermarket - or garage forecourt - chill counter so that the pastry become leaden and soggy.

A freshly baked pie, on the other hand is an irresistible treat. Just warm, oozing with savoury jelly, the meat sweet and flavoursome. The best come from the Leicestershire town of Melton Mowbray though I’ve had some wonderful pies from butchers in Yorkshire too. You can buy them online from Dickinson & Morris on www.porkpie.co.uk

The pale ale I would choose - and not simply because Madonna claims that it is her favourite beer - is Timothy Taylor's Landlord from Keighley in Yorkshire, a multi-award-winning, intensely hoppy brew that has four times been CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Supreme Champion. Pale ale is the bottled version of the bitter you find in pubs so a best bitter would of course do equally well.

The match is so great because it contains two ingredients that pair brilliantly with traditional British ales, pork and pastry. Home made sausage rolls would be equally good.

Image by Elena Zajchikova at shutterstock.com